Hidden in Plain Sight
by FlameTwirler
Summary: Suspicious circumstances lead Tsunade to send Sakura on furtive missions, scouting their own territory while in disguise. Where potential betrayal and strange new meetings mix, can she hold up under all the changes her work brings about or the things she uncovers? KakaSaku
1. Assignment

**Assignment**

* * *

Sakura walked into the Hokage's office and sighed; it was a wreck. Again. Leaning down, she started collecting all the paperwork Tsunade had sloughed off the desk in hopes that whoever next touched it would then be stuck with finishing and filing it. Unfortunately enough, this was her most successful method of shoving her least favorite bits onto other people.

The man sitting opposite the Hokage sent Sakura a querulous look, but upon seeing the woman in charge wasn't paying her any attention, neither did he. Turning back to face the blonde woman sitting across the desk, he continued his rant.

Sakura rolled her eyes behind his back.

No one took much notice of her in the office – at least not after Tsunade had made it quite apparent that not only did she shove all the unfavorable work onto her apprentice, which often included very sensitive information, but the Hokage tended to share all other information with her anyhow, if for no other reason than she liked to hear herself talk.

Of course Sakura knew there were real reasons behind Tsunade's discussions aside from vanity – for instance the fact that talking about things aloud helped her mull through them or that she actually _liked _ having input, especially when she came to an impasse on difficult problems – but many people wouldn't be comfortable knowing Sakura had such a say in things. She suspected the main reason, though, was that Tsunade, for her part, didn't like appearing too all-around responsible. She did have her image as a drunk to maintain, after all.

She stifled a sigh as she saw Tsunade's hand twitching toward her sake drawer. Not a good meeting then. She herself tended to drown out the words when it was a post-mission client meeting; there was never anything of importance to them. They could only be one of two things: praises, which she would occasionally listen in to if she was having a bad day - though usually her thoughts were too occupied with other things - or complaints, as this one obviously was.

"You're saying the genin team took too long to clear the debris from the road, is that right?" Tsunade droned, clearly at her wits end with this man but trying, for the sake of the elders who always prodded, bribed, and begged for her to behave with more dignity, to not let him see her obvious irritation.

Sakura thought she was doing well just with not pitching the man out the window. It invariably happened at least once a month; there were even betting pools set up around it now.

"Yes." He crossed his arms, indignant.

"If our genin are so notoriously 'subpar', as you put it, why waste the money and hire them at all? Why not just do the work yourself if you could have done it so much more capably?"

"Are you kidding?" he spluttered. "That would have taken me all day, if not longer!"

Tsunade eyed him levelly and Sakura knew what was coming. "Yet you expected three twelve year olds to get it done in one hour? I had no idea you thought yourself so much less equipped to deal with such a situation than a group of adolescents - one of which is a very petite girl. I suppose we had best be taking some teams into all the nearby villages to reinstate some strength-training regimen. I know its normal to be more lax during peacetime, but I had no idea it had degraded to this point. Thank you for letting me know. In fact," she hummed, fingernails drumming the desk thoughtfully, "I think I'll name the program after you and use your example to let everyone know why we need to reinstate such a program after so long."

The man blanched and waved his hands in front of him. "Oh, um, no, no, that won't be necessary. I'm sure the fault was mine. I may have underestimated the time frame just a bit."

But Tsunade just shook her head. "No, no," she said, miming him, "this is for the common welfare. I mean, three twelve-year-olds against a fit," Sakura struggled not to laugh, "man in his prime? Its a real health concern. Then again... When was the last time you had a _full_ physical?" The way the blonde said 'full' left the bite of gloves snapping in the air.

"No, no, quite all right," he reiterated, already up and out of his chair and backing toward the door. "The mistake must be all mine, I assure you. No need to go to so much trouble. Our village is hearty like you wouldn't believe and they wouldn't want you going out of your way on our account. I'm sorry to have bothered you for so long, but I assure you it was nothing more than a simple error in judgment on my part. You will hear nothing but favorable reports circulating from our village, on all accounts. Good day then, Hokage-sama."

With a bow to Tsunade and a general nod in Sakura's direction he was out the door, shutting it with finality behind him as if afraid they'd follow him out.

Sakura let out a rueful chuckle and shook her head while Tsunade sighed. Really, once you had a handle on male pride they were so much easier to deal with.

"I'm half-tempted to follow through on it. If we actually had the manpower..."

Her laughter petering out, Sakura half-heartedly resumed her tasks. Tsunade obviously had something on her mind, but she wasn't ready to get to the point just yet.

After a few minutes of companionable, if expectant silence, Tsunade finally snapped. "Sakura, sit down," she ordered, already pouring herself a generous glass of sake. "Your pacing is making me tense."

Sakura doubted that doing her job and generally tidying up the place could qualify as 'pacing', but she knew well enough not to tangle with her shishou when she was in this kind of mood. Besides, before she could say anything, Tsunade asked her to call Kotetsu in. He and Izumo were extensively involved in the daily running of the mill at this point, and thus were never far from shouting range of the hokage's door.

"Bring Shizune," she grumbled at the man as soon as he was in the door.

"She's doing rounds in the hospital for another hour-"

She bent a look on him that let them both know that she was perfectly aware of Shizune's location. "I said get. Her. NOW!" The decibel level increased with each word and only years of inoculation kept both him and Sakura from wincing at it.

"Ah, yes ma'am, right away."

The door snapped shut behind him and Sakura heard the beat of his rapid footfalls as he hurried away.

Tsunade didn't say a word until Shizune arrived but Sakura could tell from her keyed-up state that this was about more than just the pompous idiot from before. When Shizune entered, before the brunette could even give voice to a greeting, Tsunade held up a finger.

"Wards."

That single word spurred Shizune into a flurry of motion and caused Sakura to sit up straight in her chair. The brunette applied small slips of paper to the door and its frame before moving on to the window, paintings, and even the walls and floors. The listening wards, once fully in place, would trap their voices inside until the seal was broken, hopefully preventing any external eavesdropping, whether intentional or not.

Yet for all their value and convenience, the wards were rarely used on missions. Each setup, from where to place each individual ward to what needed to be written on them, had to take into account the dimensions of the room, how many entrances it had, and even the types of material used in its construction. The casing of any particular locale could take days, if not longer, and they weren't foolproof besides.

Shizune, however, had been making wards for this room long enough that she knew where its malleable edges were and assured them that, though she couldn't make the wards foolproof, it would at least alert them instantaneously in the event of a security breach. It couldn't tell them exactly who had broken through or where they'd done it from, but even that small extra bit was a marvelous feat.

Finally satisfied with her setup, Shizune nodded to herself and pulled up a third chair. "What's this about?" she asked as she sat.

The Hokage seemed to sag in her chair with the assurance of their security. Sometimes Sakura forgot how old Tsunade really was, how much she'd seen. Even at the age of twenty-three Sakura had seen more than she figured most people should if they wished to retain their sanity, so she couldn't imagine what her shishou had to deal with.

"I don't know yet," she said. "Maybe I'm seeing things, maybe there's nothing there at all, but I just can't shake the feeling that something's going on here."

Sakura shivered. A shinobi's sixth sense was never something to take lightly, especially if that shinobi happened to be the leader of the village. In their line of work, it was far better to be overly paranoid than the reverse.

Sighing, Tsunade reached into her sake drawer and pulled out two more cups, pouring a generous amount for each of them. The presence of the liquor, however, had the opposite effect than intended - it made both Sakura and Shizune even more tense. After all, Tsunade didn't often share from her stash.

This definitely wasn't going to be good.

"Maybe you're seeing things because you're hitting the sake too hard lately?" Sakura joked sardonically, attempting some levity. Tsunade's flat stare told her how well it worked. The young woman sighed. "What are you seeing that's making you suspicious?"

The blonde slammed down her bottle, uncaring of the way it made the contents slosh over the edge onto some of her papers. No doubt Sakura would be set to transcribing those later so whoever they were handed off to didn't smell the alcohol on them.

"Some of the skirmishes we've had lately haven't felt right."

"When do they ever?" Shizune quipped. They were a shinobi nation, thus war was always in the back of everyone's minds. They were living in a time of relative peace but minor battles were always being fought, with or without their daimyo's approval.

"In the past four months we've had nine casualties." She looked expectantly at the other two.

Shizune glanced at her questioningly. "I'm sorry to say so, but that in itself is nothing too out of the ordinary." During peace they could go months without a casualty and then other times ten shinobi would die in a month. There were so many factors: the types of missions being assigned, how many people were on each mission, and occasionally just plain luck. Sometimes the numbers were high, sometimes low, but they all balanced out in the end. Nine in four months unfortunately wasn't high enough to raise any suspicions on its own.

Tsunade acknowledged the point. "Three of those deaths were from a nine-man mission dealing with the Watanabe uprising. The ones that concern me, however, are the others. Four of the remaining six were on solo missions, and the last two were a pair of ANBU." She shook her head as if to clear it. "Now I can't know if those last six were hit because of their low numbers and lack of backup. However I don't like the fact that these unexplained deaths, the ones that don't have direct evidence of who killed our shinobi, had no survivors.."

The words fell like leaden lumps around the room, reverberating through them. No survivors meant no one left to identify their attackers. It wasn't as uncommon an occurrence as any of them would hope, but for there to be enough similar attacks for Tsunade to see the beginnings of a pattern was definitely a bad omen.

Sakura had heard of the deaths, though only knew the details of one of them. A single-man mission, the nin had been attacked on the route home, after the mission was thought over. It had been assumed he'd been tailed by his target, who hadn't liked that his stolen scroll had been reappropriated.

Unfortunately, given their profession, it still wasn't that uncommon a circumstance, even given their alliances with the other shinobi nations. Those treaties, however, did nothing to influence the rogues, mercenaries, missing-nin, and general thugs that made up the majority of their mission combatants.

"There's no direct indication, though, that makes you suspicious? That this is anything other than business as usual?" Shizune asked.

"No," Tsunade acknowledged. "Just a culmination of little things plus a gut feeling. The solo mission deaths - there could be no survivors simply because it was easier for the enemy to attack single shinobi. It could simply be convenience and coincidence, pure chance that so many happened at around the same time. But by that same token, it could be they were attacked _because_ it was easier to leave no survivors. It's impossible to know for sure."

"Did any of them bear signs of interrogation?" Sakura asked into the heavy room.

"No."

On one hand it was a relief to know none of their shinobi had been subjected to torture, or that none of their sensitive secrets could have been leaked. On the other hand it meant the enemy did not want information; they wanted death. Typically that meant the attacks were motivated by revenge or hate, something that was much harder to deal with and counterbalance than simple information gathering.

"And of course there's the fact that the last two deaths were ANBU operatives..."

She didn't have to spell it out. ANBU missions were certainly of a more highly classified status than those of non-ANBU nature – S-class notwithstanding – but that didn't mean there weren't plenty of people who knew about them. While the operatives weren't allowed to tell their friends and family about the exact details of their tasks, those people usually still knew when they were set to leave.

While solo missions meant typically only the Hokage, the ANBU director, the assigned nin and the nin's team leader knew the specifics, team missions were altogether a different story. They required directives and supply requisitions, which assured that forms which had at least the basic information of date and location of the op, passed through numerous other hands. There were missives and logistics, other loose ends that had to be tied up within the ANBU compound itself, and by the end of it more than just a handful of people knew about a team mission.

Normally that wasn't a salient issue, but under the circumstances…

Shizune nodded thoughtfully. "Having ANBU operatives attacked raises the bar. It could mean..." She trailed off, unsure if she was willing to go ahead and voice it aloud.

"It could mean any number of things," Tsunade bit out in aggravation, rubbing at her temples. "This team was assaulted closer to Konoha than any of the others, so the attack could be blamed on proximity making the team easier to find."

Tsunade began by running through a report of many of the recent attacks and other suspicious happenings. "Of course it is entirely possible that these events are randomized and completely unrelated – not like we don't have enough enemies, let alone mercenaries that wish to make some quick cash or just like the carnage, or rogue nin who wish for some form of revenge. Still, something doesn't sit right about it with me. What about you two?"

Shizune nodded. "Even if it is random, circumstantial, or coincidental, it still bears checking out to see if we can expect more of the same in the coming months."

It almost didn't need to be spoken aloud. When running a shinobi village it was never allowable to take chances – everything needed to be checked and double checked. But it was also hard to predict the changing fortunes of the future, and if there were any indicators around as to what could be expected, it was always wise to follow them through in order to see if they would provide any beneficial information.

"Right," Sakura added. "If nothing else we can flush out any rogues out there – we don't really have the time and manpower to be dealing with them on missions." Especially _time-sensitive _missions, as had been the case for one of the teams that had been first attacked. Needless to say the hiring party hadn't been happy, had refused to pay despite the replacements sent, and would be ruining the reputation of their village to anyone who would listen. Most definitely not good for business.

"Of course we're sending someone," Tsunade hissed. Typically when the Hokage got crankier than usual it was because she desperately needed more alcohol in her system - Sakura swore it was slowly replacing her blood- or she was worried more than usual, even given her position. Sakura had the sinking feeling she was dealing with both. "But there's a deeper issue than that. The timing of these attacks has been far too convenient for my liking. Haven't the two of you noticed that?"

Sakura bit back the retort that came immediately to her lips. Of course they'd noticed – you didn't get this far in their line of work, heck you didn't stay alive in their line of work for long if you didn't notice things like that. But still… "If there are organized groups working out there against us then they could have a spy network set up, reporting ahead to where our teams are heading. If it's running well enough it could give them plenty of time to prepare an ambush, especially given that most teams aren't racing straight out of our gate here, anxious to get to their destinations."

Tsunade cut her off with a slash of her hand. "And if they aren't organized groups?" She let the question dangle, waiting for them to see the possibilities, the problems.

Shizune caught on first. After all, she'd already been considering it. "A set team of mercenaries used to working together, with an intelligent or talented leader, could feasibly form plans well enough to set these traps. If the group isn't a group at all or is, as you say, 'unorganized', then we'd have to assume they couldn't achieve these results without extra aid."

"Aid?" Sakura questioned, her gaze shooting between the two women.

"Inside information," Tsunade sighed.

"She means we have to consider the possibility, however unlikely, of a spy inside the walls, or a mole or other type of informant," Shizune supplied.

"A mole?!" Sakura echoed hoarsely, falling back in her chair. She couldn't imagine a fellow shinobi having such a mind-set. Who could betray their village, their own comrades and friends? Then her mind went flashed through uncomfortable images of Danzou, Itachi…Sasuke, and she sat quietly back in her seat.

Tsunade shook her head. "It is the least likely possibility, and we almost always have it as a lingering suspicion for any control situations, but that means that any investigating we do in this case will have to be more secretive than is the norm because it's in our own backyard."

"Where are you going with this?" Shizune asked thoughtfully. "Normally you'd just send a group of ANBU elite that have top-clearance."

The Hokage stood abruptly, slamming her fist down on the desk. "That's the problem! Because one of the attacks was made on a team of ANBU it compromises them, as there's no way of knowing if it was chance or by design. If there is someone feeding out information then they might have knowledge of ANBU movements."

Agitated, she started pacing around the room. "No, it'll have to be a small group, or even better a single individual, who can conduct the investigation in complete secrecy."

"What about Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura ventured.

Tsunade's eyes lit as she considered this, then she blew out a heavy breath as she shook her head. "Wouldn't work."

Sakura huffed. "Why not?"

The Hokage chuckled at her apprentice's umbrage, wondering if it was from having her suggestion rejected or whether she was offended for her former teacher's sake.

"It would be best if we didn't send anyone with known ANBU associations."

"Because if there is either a mole or one of the enemy has managed to infiltrate as a spy then they might be keeping tabs on their movements in particular," Shizune finished.

"Exactly," Tsunade continued. "That's what I'd do if I were spying on an enemy encampment. First watch the top shinobi to see if their patterns change, giving any indication that they might be on to you. In our case it would make even more sense to pay extra attention to ANBU considering they're sent on the more sensitive missions. However, none of them really bother to keep their identities hidden while in the village, do they?"

"Yes, but what does that have to do with Kakashi-sensei? He hasn't been ANBU for years, and the association was long enough ago that it would take awhile to come to the attention of any informant."

Tsunade started ticking items off on her fingers. "The information _would _come up at some point: he's one of our elite and he's the famous Copy Ninja – that's enough to draw anyone's attention. He has a very distinctive fighting style, disguising him would be difficult since fiddling with anything covering his left eye would be a give-away, and he's more widely known than most of our shinobi given that, well, how many bingo books is he in now?" She sighed. "You get the point."

"So what you're saying," Sakura commented dryly, "is that you want to issue a high ranking, top-secret mission, and that you can't use any of your best shinobi for it because they're all too noticeable. Does that about sum it up?"

Tsunade snorted. Maybe now they knew what she was up against, hell, what it was like to be Hokage on a daily basis.

"Well of course it'll have to be a strong, capable, and trustworthy shinobi," Shizune supplied, glancing furtively at Sakura. "The question is how to send one of our nin to skulk around the area repeatedly without setting up a bunch of red flags to anyone who may be watching."

They all sat in silence, minds working furiously to take in the implications and try to figure out a solution that wouldn't wind up putting the whole village at risk. In the interim, Shizune sent a couple more speculative glances Sakura's way, and the younger woman was becoming too distracted by the motion to think about what she was _supposed _to be thinking about. Finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"What is it?" she huffed, blowing a stray strand of pink hair out of her eyes. "Just tell me already so I can get back to focusing on the task at hand."

"Ah," Tsunade hummed, "so you see it too, Shizune."

The brunette nodded, shining eyes focused on Sakura.

"W-what am I missing?" Sakura asked.

"It was the conclusion I'd reached as well," Tsunade continued, ignoring Sakura, "but I needed to make sure I wasn't reaching too far or missing something important."

Groaning, Sakura griped, "Will you two please tell me what you're going on about, or should I assume you went simultaneously insane?"

Chuckling, Shizune shook her head as she declared, "It's you."

Sakura didn't even have time to quirk an eyebrow before Tsunade clarified, "You're doing it, Sakura."

It took a minute for Sakura to process what Tsunade had said.

"M-me?" she stuttered. "Why in the world makes you think I'd be a good pick for this? No offense, shishou, but if we're aiming for subtlety and secrecy, I can hardly see how I'd be a good fit. As your apprentice I'm in the public eye - most everyone can recognize me - plus my fighting techniques are rather identifiable. Not to mention I have hair that all but screams out 'Here I am! Here I am!'"

"You act like you think I haven't thought this through," Tsunade said in a dangerous tone, her nails tapping out a rhythm against the top of her desk.

Usually that voice sent shinobi scurrying, but Sakura had more than become used to Tsunade's posturing and tactics. She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "As long as you weren't drunk when you thought it up."

"What was that?" Tsunade asked sharply as Shizune smothered a laugh.

"Nothing, shishou," Sakura replied, all smiles and saccharine sweetness.

Tsunade grunted.

"But," Sakura continued, "without using your heightened intellect to explain to this lowly peon the reasons for such a choice, how can I but see it as doomed to failure?"

At this Tsunade cracked a smile. "You hang out with Naruto too much. Sometimes I wonder if I should be training him to become the hokage's jester instead."

"Only if he could have the title of the strongest jester in the world," she said with mock gravity.

Tsunade chuckled. "I'm sure that could be arranged. It's not like there are many others to compete with for that particular title. If they did decide to have fights for ranking then we could create a festival around it, and then maybe I'd be remembered for some positive contribution to society."

"Now, come on..." Sakura said in protest, Shizune accompanying her, but Tsunade waved her hand dismissively.

"The reason you're the best choice is because you have all of the most important qualifications. I know I can trust you, you're intelligent, and I can meet with you whenever I like without giving anything away."

"That's it?" she asked, clearly unimpressed. "How do you plan to explain my absences when I'm out looking at the sites?"

"Medical missions," Shizune interjected, as if that should be self-evident. "Checking the health status of outlying villages for potential endemic threats, teaching seminars... You know, the usual."

"But those are such short missions, usually only two or three days. I'd only have enough time to check one site at a time, and even then not as thoroughly as I'd like."

Tsunade leaned forward. "That can't be helped. Besides, whoever perpetrated the attacks might be keeping an eye on the sites in case of investigation; it might actually be to our benefit if you don't visit each one immediately after the other."

Sakura leaned back in her chair with a mumbled cursed. "At that rate at least half of any remaining evidence will have been eroded by the weather, if it's not entirely deteriorated already at the sites of the earliest incursions."

"It's better than nothing."

"Besides," Sakura continued, "to cover that story I'll have to _do _some of those medical missions, so there'll actually be gossip about me circulating in said villages. Figuring out the timing will be atrocious!"

"That's really your biggest objection?" Tsunade asked drily.

Sakura snorted. "Hardly." She was starting to wonder if she was really the only one seeing all the holes here. Was she magnifying them or were the two of them relegating them to mere divots in the road? "What happened to finding someone not on the enemy's radar and easy to disguise? My fighting style is just as distinctive as many of those with bloodline limits."

"Yes, but not many have the extreme chakra control you have - the kind that will allow you to completely conceal your chakra signature."

"Wait, what? But I've never done that before."

"It's actually not that hard," Shizune claimed, if not entirely modestly.

Continuing on in that track, Tsunade said, "Not to mention it's one of the base requirements for joining ANBU."

"If it's not that difficult and everyone in ANBU can do it then why do you need my 'extreme chakra control'?"

The blonde rested heavily on her elbows. "As I said, you're the best _combination_ of requirements for the task."

"Besides," Shizune added, "not all ANBU members can master the technique. It takes a lot of skill to be able to maintain the concealment for long periods of time, or even while sleeping."

"And you expect me to learn to do all that by the time you want this mission to start?"

"Are you saying you're not up to the challenge?" Tsunade asked goadingly.

Sakura folded her arms and glared, refusing to rise to the bait.

"Oh, all right. As Shizune said, it's not that difficult a thing to do, not with the control that's been drilled into you for the last decade or so. Besides, I have a wonderful teacher lined up for you."

Intrigued, Sakura sat forward. "Really? Who's that?"

"Well now...does that mean you're accepting the assignment? I can't tell you until you do. Might comprise the whole thing otherwise."

Sakura stuck her tongue out. She knew her shishou was just giving her a hard time; after all, she'd just established that she found Sakura trustworthy. "Tease," she accused.

"Always," Tsunade agreed, grinning momentarily.

Unfortunately, after that she chose to remain silent, which usually meant she now expected Sakura to work the rest out for herself. Slave driver.

"Okay, okay," she began, mumbling to herself. "Since you went out of your way to mention that ANBU has basically cornered the market on chakra shielding, I'm assuming that the teacher you picked is ANBU as well." She didn't even bother to look up for confirmation. "It would make the most sense if the operative assigned this mission went undercover under the guise of ANBU, since it's the easiest way to actually disguise most people." At this she tugged gently on her hair.

"And if the shinobi goes undercover as ANBU, they'll have to know the inner workings of ANBU, at least enough to get by. Not only have we established that ANBU is likely under surveillance, but it's entirely likely the operative could run into other ANBU out in the field. Here the undercover agent would need to know how ANBU operatives interact, any potential internal codes or whatnot, to avoid raising suspicion among our own people and blowing his or her cover."

Tsunade smirked, knowing Sakura was only throwing around words like 'operative' and 'agent' because she was irked and showing her irritation by throwing a small tantrum. The young woman could grouse and grumble with the best of them, but when it came down to it she always did what was needed. Hell, she volunteered herself most of the time. Tsunade knew the girl thought herself a curmudgeon, but she was more generous than she believed.

That was why she'd needed to make sure she wasn't grasping at straws with this idea. If she brought it up she knew Sakura would eventually accede to the idea, regardless of how well-thought out it was, so she needed to make sure that at least one of the others reached the same conclusion about just how well she fit the plan.

"Tell me again why it can't be Kakashi-sensei?" she griped and Tsunade chuckled. She had her.

"Precisely because he's one of the ones we go to for these types of missions. Not to mention he can't completely hide his chakra."

"What? He can't?!" Sakura exclaimed, surprise writ across her features. "What do you mean?"

"The Sharingan. While he can hide _his _chakra, since he can't turn the Sharingan off he can't completely hide _it_. It's not his native chakra so any shield he makes has holes in it."

"But…but ANBU…"

Tsunade shook her head, knowing where she was going with this. "He had both his original eyes when he joined ANBU. The Sharingan was gifted to him after that. Even then, it wasn't necessarily a hindrance, since it confused his identity among enemies. When he was shielded the only chakra that leaked was Uchiha."

Sakura's eyes widened in understanding. He could confuse the enemy into thinking he was two people instead of one, or just only allow the Uchiha chakra through and let the enemy think he was someone else altogether.

"That changed with the Uchiha massacre though. After that there were only three Sharingan users left, and one was a missing-nin while another was a mere child. It took a while but eventually he had to give up the ghost; he was too easy to finger, even in disguise. It's the main reason he retired from ANBU."

Sitting there in shock, Sakura had to wonder what else she didn't know about her former teacher.

"If you're that worried about it though, Sakura," Shizune added, "we can always have him escort you once or twice while you're out."

She rolled her eyes. "You know that's not the point." Then, pausing, she added, "What do you mean? Are you planning to have escorts on the mission? Won't that make secrecy all the more difficult?"

Tsunade held up her hand. "We can't know how matters will proceed from here - whether the attacks will come more frequently or not. It's possible that we might need to send an escort to watch the perimeter while you are doing your scouting, but for now at least we envision that to be a rare thing, if needed at all. Still, it's good to have options.

"Regardless, we're digressing. You asked why you, so let's have at it. You haven't had a combat assignment since, what, the war? While yes, you are certainly in the public eye and considered a top shinobi" – Sakura grimaced, certain she was being pandered to – "you mostly stay in Konoha. When you are out its typically medical or intel missions, with a few exceptions here or there. And while this assignment certainly has an intel gathering aspect, it's too dangerous to be considered strictly that.

"Besides, you're smart – which is good for more than just picking up clues. You can think or even talk yourself out of many situations without having to resort to violence. And if you are in some sort of confrontation you have enough moves and tricks up your sleeve to defend yourself without having to resort to your chakra-enhanced strength; you're able to keep that as a last resort."

Sakura slouched in her chair and roughly combed her fingers through her hair. "I don't suppose you'd just let me throw a hood on and be done with it?"

Both Shizune and Tsunade laughed. "I think you already know the answer to that," the brunette declared.

That she did. Sakura sighed irritably. Very few, if any, ANBU wore hoods. In fact, not a single shinobi came to mind that wore one regularly. So for her to wear one while striving for secrecy would be like all but blaring out that she was trying to hide her hair for some reason. Then, if she was being watched out in the field, all the enemy would have to do would be to look for people with easily identifiable hair or head tattoos.

Not long after that, she'd be looking at getting herself ambushed.

Damn them and their logic.

"Fine," she grumbled. "How long do I have to prepare?"

"Two weeks," Tsunade declared with a smug smile. She hadn't thought it'd take this much for Sakura to come around, but she'd known she would. And know the girl would give her utmost.

"Two weeks?! Are you kidding me? You expect me to come up with a foolproof disguise, master chakra-shielding, and learn the ins-and-outs of ANBU all in a measly fourteen days?"

"You don't think you can?"

Sakura glared flatly.

Tsunade sighed. "I know it's a lot to ask, and it'll be difficult, but every day we wait is one when another of our shinobi could be attacked and killed, another where weather further destroys any evidence at the sites of the previous killings.

I have faith that you can do this."

Sakura met her shishou's eyes somberly, and was both relieved and humbled by the belief she saw in them.

"How will you judge whether or not I've succeeded? Whether I measure up to the standard you need?"

"In two weeks I'll have twenty relatively new ANBU members come here, of which you'll be one. If Shizune and I can't pick you out with any certainty, you pass."

"And if I fail?"

Tsunade and Shizune shared a look. "It _won't _come to that." She took a deep breath. "But if it does then we'll send someone else; we won't have time to wait for you to perfect your disguise or skills any further. Maybe we'll even have to accept the risk and send someone like Kakashi, I don't know. Shizune and I will puzzle over a Plan B in the meantime, but your task is to focus on your transformation."

"Yes, Tsunade-sama."

"All right. As of right now you're on a two week leave from all of your duties. You've clearly been overworking yourself, Sakura," she added in an overly-concerned tone, "and are in need of a good break. After all, I can't have people on my roster who aren't at a hundred-percent."

"Of course, shishou," she agreed, rolling her eyes at Tsunade's bad acting. And while it was a good cover story it would make it harder to sneak off to train with her ANBU instructor. Ah well. She supposed it'd be good practice for when she had to sneak around between her two future personalities.

"Okay, okay, I got it. I guess I should get to it then. Is there anything else I need to know now?"

Tsunade shook her head. "That's all of the basics."

"And if I need to ask you something without alerting any possible eavesdroppers?"

Taking a moment to think, Tsunade snapped her fingers. "Rub your thumb and forefinger across your chin as if thinking about something. Then if you think you can get the point across in some code or something, I'll know what you're referring to. Otherwise you an ask for Shizune and when I make the same motion to her, she'll know to put up the wards."

"But that's such a common gesture!" Sakura protested. "How do you know I won't do it unconsciously, start talking about something completely unrelated, and confuse the heck out of us both?"

"I have never once seen you do that. And after all our years of working together, I know your mannerisms - both conscious and unconscious - rather well."

Sakura looked to Shizune for confirmation. The brunette shrugged. "She's right. I've never seen you do that either."

"Huh." That made her realize she had yet another thing to work on. Her unconscious habits - even something so innocuous as how she held a kunai or how she walked - could give her away. This was going to be even more work than she'd initially thought. She'd have to develop an entirely new persona.

Well, at least it wouldn't be boring. Besides, it'd give her a chance to brush up on her acting skills.

Standing, she brushed her skirt flat. "All right then. When's my first lesson?"

"You meet with Tenzou at six tomorrow morning."

"Yamato-senpai?" she asked excitedly. It was always nice to work with someone she already knew and had a good dynamic with. Plus it had been so long since she'd seen him that it would be great to catch up. The fact that she'd learned he was a good - and patient - teacher certainly didn't hurt.

"No, _Tenzou-_senpai," Tsunade emphasized. "That's one of the reasons I'm pairing you up with him; you need to learn to address him correctly in each guise or you risk giving yourself away. I'm sure he'll be able to drill the distinction into you by the time the two weeks are up." She smiled in a way that Sakura was vaguely sure was sadistic, and suddenly she wasn't so excited about working with her sometimes teammate.

When Sakura just continued to stare warily at her, Tsunade made a shooing motion. "Go on now, you have plenty of other things you could be doing than gawking at my beauty."

Sakura smothered a chuckle but then stretched her arms over-head, exaggerating a yawn. "Ya know, shishou, I'm rather tuckered from all that overworking myself. I guess now might be a good time to drag myself home. It's time to catch up on my sleep and all."

Shizune smiled and shook her head but went to start removing the wards.

"And don't worry," Sakura added, "I'll be doing plenty of complaining about my horrible, naggy boss and my forced leave of absence as I trudge on home."

Holding up a finger, Shizune made a motion to indicate she'd just removed the protection from the room and they could now be heard. She hurriedly gathered up the remaining pieces of paper stuck to the various parts of the room, tore them into tiny little pieces, then stuffed them into her pocket for proper disposal later.

Sakura stuffed her hands in her pockets before winking at the pair of them. "Fine then," she grumbled unhappily before stomping out of the room.

When she came across a curious Kotetsu in the hall, she glared at him until he asked if she was okay. "The hag has decreed that I'm on leave, because apparently I'm so stupid I don't know how to watch my own health. The nerve, right? I mean, what field am I in after all? I don't work myself any harder than she does."

The poor man chuckled nervously, much to Sakura's inner amusement. Maybe she was more like her teacher than even she realized.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that Sakura-san. But hey, if nothing else you can take a nice vacation or spend your mornings sleeping in."

"Do I look like I need to be catching up on sleep?" she asked, voice dangerous.

"Not at all!" he declared, waving his hands frantically. "Just, who doesn't like sleeping in?"

"Fine," she muttered, turning away from him. "See you in a couple weeks then. Make sure to help keep her in line when Shizune's not around."

He groaned and Sakura allowed herself a small smile as she retreated down the hall. All along her route home she griped and complained to anyone who'd listen, willing or not, but only half-listened to their soft platitudes and careful sympathy. (After all, apprentice or not she was still bad-mouthing the Hokage, so they couldn't be too ardent in their condolences.) Her mind was on rather different matters, already making and discarding plans about how to manage her appearance. Still, there was only so much she'd be able to figure out before her meeting with Yamato - no, Tenzou, _Tenzou, _she corrected herself - tomorrow morning.

Maybe she should go to be early after all. Tomorrow was sure to be a busy and demanding day.

* * *

**AN:** This story has been pestering me for years. _Years!_ I need to get it out just in an attempt to retain my sanity. That said, updates will probably still be incredibly slow. Not only do I have other things that I _should_ be working on, but writing is still kinda hard for me, though I do get it all out eventually. Also - if you notice any errors please feel free to point them out. Things like that drive me crazy.

Most importantly, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who's supported me, through reviews, favs, follows, and a few awesome, awesome notes here and on other sites. You guys really make a difference to a person, and have motivated me for sure, so a definite thanks to all ya'll out there. (Especially dimisfit for pimping me so hard, lol, and being generally awesome and neon for being a sweetheart and also generally awesome.)


	2. Bruised

**A/N:** Can I just say how funny it is that I figured out the acronym for this story is HIPS? *easily amused*

* * *

**Bruised**

* * *

Yamato/Tenzou was, she found, a great - if sometimes merciless - teacher. There were many ins and outs of ANBU society that she'd never have even considered; the sum of it was more than she'd be able to absorb in the limited time frame they had, so they stuck to the basics. If she came across other ANBU out in the field, there were many things she could explain away as being a new recruit, but there were some things that were just understood among the ANBU, some things that would be a huge faux pas to do or not do, and she didn't want to be drawing any undue attention to herself.

Things like how often people actually wore their masks.

Technically, according to the letter of the law, masks were supposed to be worn at all time while on duty. In reality almost no one adhered to that, at least not on missions. In town things were a bit tighter, but then again a typical guard-type shift only lasted ten hours or so. On a mission, when someone would be out for days at a time, masks would come off to eat, occasionally to sleep, and often to socialize.

There were many regular camping grounds on the way in and out of Konoha from any direction, and when happening upon another group - which was more regularly than one might expect in the wilds of the forest - they often wouldn't bother to keep up the barrier.

She hadn't made the connection before as Kakashi hadn't made a habit of using the common campgrounds, being as unsociable as he was. But, she reflected, the few times they _had_ come across ANBU, the operatives had generally taken their masks off if conversing for more than a few minutes.

Of course, keeping her mask _on_ was vital for her. She couldn't change her face without using chakra, and doing so could be disastrous in its own right.

That was why Tenzou had come up with the idea that she'd have to play the brand new recruit, too scared of the rules and the higher ups to risk bending them.

Usually newbies warmed up to the 'unofficial' rules right away, but every now and then there was a stickler who was just too by-the-book and took a while to chill out. That was going to be her angle.

Still, that had all been established within the first hour. Now they were working on chakra shielding. The particular method she was working on could more accurately be called chakra blocking, but most people were uncomfortable with that term.

"This is the most foolproof way of making your chakra undetectable," Tenzou had explained. "Building a shield around yourself requires you to not only match the frequency exactly - which given the fluid nature of chakra means leaks are likely - but it requires you to expend chakra to maintain it. Easy to drain yourself that way if you're not careful."

He would teach her shielding as well as blocking, but she was only to use it as a last resort. They could _not _risk her being compromised.

Chakra blocking, on the other hand, involved literally stopping the flow of chakra in the body. Thus there would be no signal for an enemy to pick up on.

"I can only teach you this," he'd commented, "because of the level of chakra control you exhibit. It takes understanding and skill to focus in and isolate each chakra point in your body and put it into stasis."

He'd explained the basics to her, which were simple enough, but infuriatingly told her there was nothing else he'd be able to do to help her with this method. It was all internalized, something she'd have to figure out the feel of for herself. The only thing he could do was tell her when he felt her chakra signal fade at all.

It had been half a day and she hadn't even made the remotest headway. It was so frustrating; she could see the chakra port in her mind. She'd focused on the one in her left shoulder, reasoning that when that one was out of commission those further down her arm would be easier to block. Using that reasoning she'd almost started in her core, but figured those were too strong for a first attempt.

She exhaled slowly, allowing herself a short break. She didn't open her eyes though; she didn't want to lose the chakra point in her mind's eye and felt that keeping its location fixed would prevent her from losing her progress...if she'd made any.

"You know," she said absently, "I bet those damn Hyuugas are just fantastic at this. Naturals, even. Not only can they actually _see_ chakra points, but some of their specialized attacks are based on isolating and blocking them. It's not quite fair to us normal shinobi. Don't you think so, Yamato-senpai?"

Seemingly out of nowhere, a branch struck her in the back, knocking her from where she'd been sitting on her knees so that she almost caught a face full of dirt. Coming up gasping from the impact, Sakura scowled in Yamato's direction.

Automatically she reached back a hand to heal the massive bruise that was already forming on top of all the other half-healed bruises. At first she'd hesitated about healing herself, wasting her chakra when focusing so much on training. However she'd finally decided that maybe lowering her chakra would actually help - so she'd be trying to dam a stream instead of a river.

Besides, she was getting hit so much the growing discomfort kept breaking her concentration.

And Yamato - _Tenzou, TENZOU! _her mind screamed - held that his beatings were supposed to help.

"You're a sadist, you know that?" she grumbled.

Tenzou just smiled serenely, not that Sakura could see it. "It's the quickest way to learn."

She snorted, then opened her eyes just so she could glare at him. She figured she deserved a break anyhow.

"Scoff if you want, but it's true," he continued. "Even if you don't remember to use the correct address for me, your body will. You'll wince or tense up before you can even get the first syllable of 'Yamato' to leave your mouth."

"Isn't that how they train dogs? Punishment for good behavior and rewards for good?"

Tenzou's smile turned slightly smug. "Hey, if it works..."

Sakura threw a handful of grass at him and he shielded his face, laughing. "No, really, it's because it works. And it does so well because it's not a mental or even conscious stimuli. Your body trains itself and the mind follows. It's crude but efficient, and the best option when time is limited."

Sakura muttered something unkind under her breath. "Well, then what happens if it works too well? What if I call you Tenzou when I'm me instead of whatever alternate ANBU persona you cook up for me?"

They'd decided that Tenzou would pick everything for Sakura's cover identity- from her ANBU mask to her code name - to prevent any bit of her preferences or personality from leaking through.

"That is much better than the alternative," he said seriously.

They were both well aware of what the consequences could be if she misspoke his name while undercover. Her identity would likely be compromised - after all, how many people called him Yamato on a regular basis? In turn she'd put both herself and the mission in jeopardy. But she already knew that, and Tenzou knew how hard she was working specifically because of that. There was no reason to reiterate the point.

"If you call me Tenzou as yourself, however," he continued, "you can use all kinds of stories to cover for it. You could say you're around Kakashi too much, and hearing him repeatedly calling me by my other codename just got it stuck in your head. Or you could say you've started calling me that on occasion just to harass me. There are plenty of scenarios that could lead to you calling me Tenzou, and you think well enough on your feet so I don't think it'd be any problem for you if you do slip up."

Shrugging in attempted nonchalance, she couldn't quite hide the way her face flushed in pride at his belief in her ability. Then again, if she didn't have so many people who believed in her she wouldn't be able to be in this situation to begin with. Sometimes she wondered how easy it would be to let them all down.

She flopped onto her back and stared at the shifting blue of the sky. It was in moments like these that she could understand Shikamaru just a little bit better. Watching the scuttling clouds made her - made everything here on the ground - feel small and insignificant. Even her worries and frustrations.

"Let's spar," she announced suddenly.

Tenzou sent her a curious glance. "While I'm never one to turn down a spar, you're supposed to be concentrating on your training."

"I know," she said, sitting up. "But I keep thinking that if my chakra reserves were lower then it'd be easier to figure out how to shut down one of the points. It would at least give me the feel for it so I'd know how to do it from then on."

Tenzou nodded, even though he said, "Actually that depends on the person. Having lower chakra helps some, like you said, but for others its a detriment - they need to be at full power to focus and channel properly. When we're training ANBU in this we normally don't mention it for exactly that reason. You're the ones who know your bodies and systems the best, so if you thought of it then that's a good sign it actually will help."

"Great!" Sakura enthused, jumping to her feet. "I was tired of getting nowhere."

Shaking his head, Tenzou rose to his feet more slowly. "Don't be so hard on yourself," he chided. "This is only your first day of training."

"Yeah," she said absently flexing her fingers and cracking her knuckles. "But I only have two weeks to master this, not to mention perfect my disguise, relearn my habits, and hopefully have time to start learning that second method of chakra shielding you told me about. That doesn't give me much time to be lenient with myself."

He hummed. "Is that so? In that case maybe I'll go easy on you and let you get a few punches in. Then you can heal me and we'll make sure you're good and depleted before continuing your training."

She laughed at him. "You wish, old man."

"Old...man?" he gasped in mock affront. "That does it, no more Mr. Nice Guy. Apparently this not-so-old-man needs to teach you some manners and show you what kind of difference experience makes."

Grinning, she goaded, "Bring it on."

Face turning serious, Tenzou abruptly crouched low and made a series of handsigns in a blur of motion too fast for Sakura to catch, but she already knew what was coming.

Trees sprouted from the ground all around, unnaturally long limbs racing toward her, but Sakura'd had quite enough of being pummeled by branches today. Still smiling, she wove and danced her way through the advancing line and headed out of the clearing toward the tree line, where there would be more obstacles for him to deal with.

It had been a long time since she and Tenzou had squared off against each other. She had some new tricks up her sleeve that she was just dying to try out on him.

This was going to be fun.


	3. Camouflage

**Camouflage**

* * *

Sakura collapsed onto her back, relishing the coolness of the tile on her bathroom floor. Exhausted, body still trembling in pain, she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand to clean away any vestiges of her being sick. Again. She stared longingly at the bottle of water sitting on the edge of the sink, wishing her arms were just a little bit longer. Finally she dragged herself upright, guzzling down the entire bottle in one motion and throwing it into the growing pile of plastic on her floor. At least she'd have plenty to refill later.

Steeling herself she looked in the mirror, grimacing at the image she made. All this and she was still only half done. She resisted the urge to punch something. She glared at her reflection, as if she could blame it for her slow progress.

Tentatively she reached up to touch the edges of her hair; the right side was now down past her shoulder blade, though the ends weren't even at all, while the left side was still her normal length, hanging just above her shoulders. Pushing away from the countertop in disgust she went to the kitchen to make herself some tea, hoping to calm her stomach. Unfortunately, she couldn't help but catch sight of the clock, and at seeing how much time had passed since she'd started working on her hair she was attacked by worry again.

She was seven days into her preparations. Which meant she only had a week, one _measly_ week, to perfect herself. Her disguise had to be _flawless_. Nothing else would be sufficient to get past Shizune and Tsunade's eyes.

It was hard work, making herself look like an entirely different person without the use of genjutsu or any other type of chakra manipulation that could be detected, or disabled if she was knocked unconscious.

She couldn't do anything about her face, or even her body type. Padding could only change so much and it was usually noticeable to those in her line of work; they were paid to be observant and padding, while used for disguises on missions, didn't move the same way as muscle and fat.

So then came the tricky parts. Even from a distance most people were recognizable by their gait or posture - Kakashi-sensei, for instance, she could pick out from a crowd without even trying because of his lackadaisical slump - so she'd worked on giving herself the slightest limp in the right leg to change her walk just a bit. It seemed to be effective enough. Then she'd asked Tenzou to tell her about any quirks she had, like whether she stood a certain way or fidgeted with her hands, anything like that that could be a giveaway. He knew her habits pretty well already, but having him stare at her so intently throughout their interactions this first week - just in case he'd missed something - had been just a bit unnerving. Still, the results had been fruitful and she now knew what to watch out for.

But worst of all, of course, was her hair. As Tsunade had pointed out, she couldn't just wear a hood and expect that to work. It would be far too obvious, and if anyone was trying to pinpoint her identity they'd start by looking for people with easily identifiable hair. That or bald shinobi with head tattoos, though there were few enough of them too. She'd have to dye it, and she'd created her own by mixing powdered medicines and herbal remedies with common plants. That way she'd never run out, if she was caught too long away from Konoha. Couldn't exactly have pink roots showing. Plus, chemical dye was so harsh it'd be a bit more obvious. Not that she was too worried about that part - plenty of kunoichi dyed their hair - but she'd prefer not to bring too much attention to that particular attribute if she didn't need to.

Still, it wasn't enough.

Dye was such an obvious disguise tactic, and so commonly used, that it wouldn't be too hard to figure out. Anyone trying to find her would just have to look at everyone with shoulder-length hair and that cut down on the possible kunoichi by much more than half. This disguise had to be foolproof; Tsunade wouldn't accept anything less, and she was _trying _to figure out who she was. They couldn't risk anyone figuring out it was her under the mask, so she needed something more extreme. Therefore she decided she had to make her hair longer.

She'd gone through multiple possibilities and scenarios in her mind, discounting each one. If she cut her hair even shorter it would only draw more attention, as everyone in her day-to-day life would be sure to comment on it.

That meant she'd have to lengthen it. She'd tried extensions but they came out during only her third fight with Tenzou. Besides, no one normally wore them on missions - notably because of that particular reason, but also because the things were damn expensive to be risking in the first place - so if hers came out while she was in the field it would be a huge red flag.

Thus she decided she'd have to fall back on her medical skill and abilities with chakra manipulation and create her own solution. The result was one of the most painful things she'd ever experienced, but it worked.

She literally pulled her hair longer. While tugging on a small section, to the point her scalp was burning and she was traumatizing the hair follicles, she flooded the area with healing chakra, which prompted her scalp to force out healthy strands to compensate.

Rinse, lather, repeat, and a couple hours later her hair was a few inches longer.

...Or so she hoped. Today it had taken her two and a half hours just to get through this half of her head. Granted, it was progress; just a three days ago she'd only gotten through a quarter of her head in the same amount of time. Still, it wasn't enough. She wasn't progressing quickly enough for what she needed.

She'd hoped to have a couple days of breathing room, time to get used to running and fighting with long hair again, as she'd forgotten what an absolute pain it could be. She couldn't even put it up in a bun or anything so out of the way because that would negate the whole point - it needed to be _obvious_ her hair was long. Leaving it down was just too much of a hindrance though so she'd settled on a high ponytail, but man could that thing whip her in the face.

She'd only been able to practice with the extra length at home so far, as every night when she was done with making her hair longer she carefully cut it back to its original length, lest someone come visit her in the middle of the night and catch her looking like that. Granted, Tsunade had declared her on 'vacation' for two weeks, but she'd had enough late night patients that she knew that was no guarantee of privacy.

Still, she thought that maybe tonight she'd pin her hair up to disguise it as best she could before going to bed. She might look crazy during training with Tenzou tomorrow, but it'd be partial practice. Besides, then tomorrow night she could finish her head off and maybe even get to start over, or just work on her blocking exercises more.

All she knew was it was past midnight, she was tired and shaky, and she had to be up before dawn tomorrow for her training. She collapsed onto her bed, not even bothering to change her clothes, and fell asleep as soon as her aching head hit the pillow.


	4. Dry-run

**Dry-run**

* * *

Today was the fourteenth day. This was it; she had to pass Tsunade's inspection with not a hint of who she really was, otherwise not only would she get caught out and ruin her mission, but she'd have to live under the humiliation of not being able to fool her own teacher when that was the whole point.

She took a nervous breath as she made her way to the hokage tower. She was prepared for this - she _would _excel. Her disguise was impeccable, so long as she kept her chakra hidden. The only thing she had to be mindful of were her habits and how she spoke. Luckily Tenzou had also trained her - with his ever favorite painful reminders - to speak in a high, wispy falsetto that barely engaged her vocal chords.

Tenzou was already waiting in the hall outside Tsunade's office. He'd wait with her, just as he had with the sixteen previous candidates, and would with the next three as well. The others had no idea why they'd been summoned or been given such odd orders by Tenzou, but ANBU were trained not to ask too many questions. Not to mention they'd surely had odder assignments, even if on this one they were all advised not to speak in anything above a whisper while in the tower.

Sakura stood up straighter when she saw an ANBU operative leaving the hokage's office. (She did her best to try not to _think_ like Sakura either; this wasn't Tsunade's office, or her shishou's, but that of Hokage-sama.) They'd all been given specific appointment times so they wouldn't all be congregating together, and the exiting operative nodded her head in greeting before continuing down the hall. Tenzou squeezed her shoulder before giving her a little push forward. She rolled her eyes but mentally thanked him for the gesture, helping to break her furiously worrying train of thought for a moment, before she entered Tsunade's office and closed the door behind her.

She made sure to keep her distance from Tsunade's desk, standing at attention just a couple of feet from the door. She studied her shishou as the woman scribbled across an expansive piece of paper; she hadn't even acknowledged Sakura's presence yet.

Sakura, however, refused to rise to the bait of letting her impatience bleed through in the form of clearing her throat or making some other noise to draw Tsunade's attention. She'd expected Tsunade would lay out some trap for her right from the get go. Sakura wasn't exactly known for her soothing demeanor and abundance of patience. After a while, though, she came to the conclusion this was starting to get just a bit excessive. The clock ticked by at a crawl and she had to suppress a natural groan when she saw she'd been standing there thirty minutes already.

Besides, ANBU were supposed to go silent and unnoticed. What kind of cover could she maintain if she couldn't even handle this?

Shizune had come and gone twice already, and when she came in a third time - and stayed for more than two minutes - Sakura got her hopes up. It was all for naught though; she went into a corner where Sakura couldn't see her, since she had to remain at attention until acknowledged by the hokage. Being that Sakura couldn't turn to look at her she had no idea what the brunette was up to. For all she knew Shizune was ignoring her altogether and doing her day-to-day job, just biding her time until the interview actually started. More likely though she'd intentionally gone into her blind spot to study her, which of course put Sakura all the more on edge.

Finally, after _forty-seven_ minutes of waiting, she'd had enough. No one could endure being ignored _that_ long. "You called for me, Hokage-sama?" she asked in the high falsetto meant to disguise her voice.

Tsunade snorted. "You made it longer than I thought you would, given how rigidly you were standing. In fact, it was getting so tedious doing all this paperwork that I almost ended it first."

She had to cut back the retort that immediately sprang to her lips. Regular nin weren't much given to sassing the leader of the village to her face. "So this was an exercise in patience?" she asked, hoping that her supposed confusion leaked into her voice. Since the other ANBU hadn't been given a reason for their summons, they'd have no idea what to make of the hokage's strange behavior.

"Hardly, but it's a start. Now," she continued, leaning back in her chair and folding her hands together, "let's begin."

What followed was a series of questions with no discernable connection, which made it difficult for her to follow the thread of the conversation. She hadn't realized Tsunade was so proficient at interrogation techniques, but then again she'd never been on the receiving end before - at least not while in work mode. Tsunade pried into her personal life all the time but that was different.

"What's your name?" From the glint in Tsunade's eye she knew that at least one person had given her true name, either too intimidated by the hokage to refuse or thinking that she was just supposed to, given that it was the head honcho doing the asking.

In that moment she was also extremely thankful that Tenzou had chosen her op name for her, so that there was nothing in it to give her away to Tsunade's discerning gaze.

"Moriko," she replied simply, wondering what Tsunade's reaction would be to the codename. Honestly she hadn't been sure if she, as the hokage, _would _ask for their names, considering she had to be pretty knowledgeable about what code names were being used. It was in her favor that most of the ANBU names - including the one she'd been assigned - got recycled.

The blonde tapped her nails on her desk and hummed. "Moriko." She mulled over the name then nodded. "Child of the forest. On point yet generic; it's a good name. I'll have to pass my regards along to Tenzou." All names, whether or not they were picked by the ANBU themselves - and many did the same as Sakura and chose to have one assigned - had to be approved. Tenzou had been working his way methodically up the hierarchy and, from what Sakura could tell, was doing quite well for himself and being depended on quite a bit. She felt oddly proud of him.

However, this was followed up by a series of questions that covered everything from math - 'What's two plus two?' - to cooking - 'How often do you bake?' - to basic survival skills - 'How can you get drinkable/potable water from the ponds and muddy streams out in the forest?' Her favorite color, weapon preferences, and even recent town gossip were all covered in the Hokage's bizarre line of questioning.

She wasn't sure if Tsunade was trying to ferret out any hidden mannerisms that she might let slip due to the supposed casualness of the situation, or whether these seemingly frivolous questions were actually giving her useful information.

She did know, however, that she was most definitely overthinking all of this, and even if it wouldn't show to her audience on her face, all shinobi were adept at picking up clues from body language. Well, maybe every shinobi but Naruto.

And then just like that it was over. "All right," Tsunade said, waving her away, "you may go."

Sakura was surprised; the interview itself hadn't even lasted fifteen minutes. And Shizune hadn't hopped in on the questioning at all, as she'd been so sure she would. Then again, she supposed that if either of them was able to identify her because of her disguise not being thorough enough, they'd be able to do so relatively quickly.

That Tsunade had been so dismissive in the end gave Sakura hope. In fact, the hokage had already returned to her paperwork - or perhaps notes on the candidates - and Sakura hadn't even left the room yet. Her heart leaped in a giddy little dance of jubilation. Maybe she'd done it. It would be a huge blow to her pride if she didn't succeed. She'd be letting everyone down - Tsunade, Shizune, Tenzou, and ultimately the whole of Konoha, not to mention herself - if she didn't pull this off.

What would come of Tsunade's faith in her if she failed? Sure, she'd demanded a lot - but that also meant she thought Sakura capable of handling the situation, and she would, _couldn't_, let her down.

When she left the hokage's office, shutting the door quietly behind her, she couldn't help but beam at Tenzou where he waited in the hall with the next applicant. Of course he couldn't see her smile, but he was adept enough to read her body language, and acknowledged her with a nod and a small - and dare she think it, satisfied? - smile.

Nodding in return to both him and the other operative, she raced from the tower, eager to get out of that stifling mask and back to herself.


End file.
